“If you build it, he will come.” This quote, from the movie Field of Dreams, captures the hopes of many marketers: write great content on your blog, and an audience will be magically attracted to you. Thanks to Google this is partially true, but are there things that you can do to help the process along? The answer, of course is yes. To start, consider the following ideas:
This post, however, is an example of a completely different way to grow your readership: create content clusters of related blog posts, and then cross-link them. It stands to reason that if a person lands on one particular blog post, they may have an interest in closely related posts. Planning several blog posts around a particular theme - planning the posts in clusters instead of simple individual posts – can make this happen.
The second benefit of this is that these clusters are ready-made raw material for a longer white-paper or other form factor. (More on repurposing content.)
This week’s action plan: Planning future blog post clusters is great, but what about everything you’ve written in the past? This week, go through your archives, and identify the clusters where you can graft cross-links after the fact.
Bonus Blog Bit: Beyond the in-line cluster strategy, there are a number of WordPress plug-ins that automatically identify related posts; while not perfect, these also can help generate more internal connections – and readership.
Are you one of the millions who remain mystified about Twitter? While I’ve written about this before (Twitter Strategies), I thought it might be worthwhile to boil it down again, but from a different perspective.
Here are five key Twitter activities that might expose a previously hidden opportunity:
- Monitor: Professional development, risk mitigation, or keeping tabs on prospective clients (or employers) are great ways to stay in the loop of what’s going on. How: Use a tool such as Hootsuite.com, and set up streams that track relevant keywords – one per column. Each morning, do a quick scan to review any relevant posts.
- Discover: Identifying today’s trends – and seeing tomorrow’s news today – gives you a unique perspective on the world. How: Click on Discover within Twitter to discover trending topics. Many will be irrelevant, but a quick scan can separate the wheat from the chaff. Key question is so what?: Thinking through the relevance (and impact) of those topics for your business is the key to unlocking the value of discovery.
- Interact: Discussions with others who have similar interests can have many benefits, including professional development, business development, and personal connection. How: LinkedIn has groups, Facebook has pages, and Twitter has … #hashtags. Here’s how they work:
- Groups decide on unique hashtags as an identifier for open discussion on a specific topic
- Individuals then include that hashtag when tweeting on that topic
- Individuals set Hootsuite to monitor that hashtag, which then displays the stream of relevant conversation
- Share: Passing relevant information – Retweeting – to your followers sends two messages – the tweet itself, and that you are “connected” as an in-the-know source. How: Find a relevant tweet, and click the Retweet button.
- Direct Message: This is a private one-to-one message to a specific person, exactly like a (very short) email. How: A DM conversation is possible only when both people follow each other.
The value of what you share on this platform – tweet, retweet, DM, and interact via hashtag – is a direct reflection of your brand online. In this way, Twitter is no different than any other interaction.
This week’s action plan: How are you currently using Twitter? This week, develop more comfort with the channel: choose one “new” activity, and see what happens. You may just make an important discovery: a better return on your time investment.
